Top chess engines of the year were Rybka, Zappa, Deep Junior, Deep Fritz and Hiarcs. In August, GM Joel Benjamin played a match against Rybka which gave him Pawn odds and Rybka won +2 -1 =4.
Engines were good enough and hardware small enough that cheating was starting to be a real problem in tournaments. In Holland the TD caught a Dutch player who had stepped outside "to get some fresh air" using Pocket Fritz on his PDA. He was banned from playing in the Dutch league for two years.
A Polish player was booted out of the Tadeusz Gniot Memorial tournament after he was accused of using a chess program to make his moves.
In December allegations were made against Hungarian WGM Anna Rudolf who was accused of cheating by some of the male players in an open tournament in France. They alleged that she was receiving transmissions for her moves through a tube of lip gloss. In the final round Rudolf was leading and her opponent refused to shake hands and demanded that action be taken against her. A shocked Rudolf ended up losing. New York Times ARTICLE and Chess.com ARTICLE
Thieves were active, too. in Washington, D.C. an elementary school's business manager, Sandy Jones, stole almost all of the $73,000 that had been donated to a chess program. When her thievery was discovered school officials and the police did little or nothing. It wasn't until an anonymous tipster told the city's inspector general that any action was taken. Washington Examiner ARTICLE
19-year-old GM Farhad Tahirov played in the 2006-2007 Hastings Congress and after the last round took a walk. It turned out to be a serious mistake. He unwittingly walked past a pub frequented by skinheads and others of a baser sort and he was attacked and robbed of almost 1,000 British pounds (about $1,350 today) in cash, a mobile phone and camera. He also ended up in hospital.
In February, GM Teimour Radjabov's hotel room in Patzcuaro, Mexico was burglarized a few days before the start of the tournament forcing him to withdraw. Radjabov and his father had left their room for dinner and returned about half an hour later to find all of their valuable items were stolen. They reported the crime, but local authorities and the police did nothing. The World Open was held in July in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and one of the vendors, the Rochester Chess Center, had 21 chess clocks stolen.
It was also a bad year for 80-year-old FIDE President Florencio Campomanes who was involved in a car accident in Turkey that left him in intensive care after his driver lost control and the car flipped over.
Campomanes, who was sitting in the back seat and not wearing his seat belt was ejected. He suffered broken bones in his legs, hands, neck and face resulting in hime having to undergo a lengthy surgery to repair the damage.
On a happier note, the year ended with a tournament in Reggio Emilia, a city in northern Italy with a population of about 171,944 that has a long history of tournaments dating back to 1958.
The 2007-8 tournament started on December 29, 2007 and included the legendary Viktor Korchnoi as well as two rising stars from Asia, Pentala Harakrishna and Ni Hua.
The players included a mix positional players (Almasi, Godena, Marin and Tiviakov), tacticians (Harakrishna and Gashimov) while Landa, Ni Hua and Navara could be expected to play either way. Korchnoi, of course, defied description.
Pentala Harikrishna (born May 10, 1986) is an Indian GM who was the World U10 Champion in 1996, Asian U14 Champion in 1999 and 2000, World Junior Champion in 2004 and Asian Champion in 2011. He was the youngest Indian to become an IM and also the youngest to become a GM at the age of 15.
Russian GM Konstantin Landa (born May 22, 1972) competed in the FIDE World Championship 2004 and FIDE World Cup 2007. In 2011 he was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer.
The following game was played in the final round and Harikirshna played a good, old fashioned Bishop's Opening, one of the oldest openings to be analyzed; it was studied by Lucena and Ruy Lopez and was later played by Philidor.
Then in 1940 along came Weaver Adams who claimed that the Bishop's Opening was a win for White by force in his classic book White to Play and Win. Of course, he couldn't prove it so later moved on to the Vienna Game, making the same claim.
Actually, the opening leads to equality with best play and Bent Larsen used to play it after first using it at the 1964 Interzonal and it has still used occasionally by Kasparov, Nunn and Leko.
In the game Harikirshna played it to avoid the Petrov Defense. A slight inaccuracy by Landa allowed his opponent to seize the initiative and ultimately hit on a winning plan with a spectacular move. However, Harikirshna got impatient and erred on move 22, but as Tartakower once said, the winner is the player who makes the next to last mistake, which in this case was Harikirshna.
Pentala Harikrishna - Konstantin Landa
Result: 1-0
Site: Reggio Emilia
Date: 2007-08
Giuoco Piano
[...] 1.e4 e5 2.♗c4 Played to avoid the then popular Petrov. 2...♘f6 This is known as the Berlin Defense; the Classical Defense is 2...Bc5 3.d3 ♘c6
3...c6 is also a popular defense for black. 4.♘f3 d5 5.♗b3 ♗d6 and white can play either 6.Nc3 or 6.exd5
4.♘f3 Transposing into the Giuoco Piano.
4.♘c3 is the main alternative. 4...♗b4 5.♗g5 h6 6.♗xf6 ♗xc3+ 7.bxc3 ♕xf6 8.♘e2 d6 9.O-O
4...♗c5 5.c3 a6 6.♗b3 d6 7.O-O O-O 8.♗g5 h6 9.♗e3
9.♗h4 is frequently seen. 9...♖e8 10.d4 ♗a7 11.♕d3 ♗g4 12.♘bd2 with a completely even position. Fedorov,A (2595)-Tkachiev,V (2654)/Rabat CRO 2003
9...♘g4 Harikrishna had reached this position in his preparation and initially concluded that 10.Bxc5 was to his advantage, but finally concluded that it only results in equality.
9...♗a7 10.♗xa7 ♖xa7 11.♖e1 ♘e7 12.d4 ♘g6 is equal. Plenca,J (2082)-Papp,A (2049)/Kostrena CRO 2004
9...♗xe3 10.fxe3 d5 11.exd5 ♘xd5 12.♕e2 ♗e6 13.♘bd2 ♕d7 White is slightly better. Paehtz,E (2457)-Lagno,K (2549)/Beijing 2011
10.d4 ♗a7 11.♘bd2 ♘e7
11...♘a5 was a promising alternative. 12.♗c2 c5 with an aggressive position.
12.h3 ♘xe3 13.fxe3 exd4 14.exd4 c5 15.♔h1 cxd4 Harikrishna pointed out that while strictly speaking this move is not a mistake, it helps white bring his pieces to good posts in the center.
15...d5 16.♕e1 ♗e6 Harikrishna thought black might be better here, but, in fact, the position is equal.
16.♘xd4 d5 17.♘2f3 Landa had not considered this move which leaves white slightly better. 17...dxe4 18.♘e5 A fine move attacking f7. 18...♗e6 The only way to stop the attack on f7. 19.♘xe6 ♕xd1 20.♘xf8 Another very nice move. White also has a slight advantage after 20.Rfxd1, but the text is even better...and it came as a surprise to Landa. 20...♕xb3 He cannot take either R without ending up with a lost position. (20...♕xf1+ 21.♖xf1 ♔xf8 22.♖xf7+ wins)
20...♕xa1 Watch this! 21.♗xf7+ ♔h8 (21...♔xf8 22.♘d7#) 22.♘fg6+ ♘xg6 23.♘xg6+ ♔h7 24.♖xa1 and white is a piece ahead.
21.axb3 ♖xf8 22.g4 This is a mistake in that it allows black to centralize his N with 22...Nd5.
22.♖ad1 was correct then after 22...e3 23.♖fe1 white has a solid (winning) position.
22...♘d5 23.♖ae1 ♖e8 24.♖f5 g6 This is a decisive mistake.
24...♘e7 This was the move Harikrishna considered best and stated that during the game he was unable to find a clear win, nor could he find one after the game. Stockfish's best line is 25.♖ff1 ♘d5 26.♖xe4 f6 27.♖fe1 fxe5 28.♖xe5 ♖xe5 29.♖xe5 ♘f4 30.♖e7 with white standing better. In Shootouts white scored +1 -0 =4 so black has excellent drawing chances.
25.♘xg6 ♘e3
25...fxg6 loses to 26.♖xd5 ♗f2 27.♖e2 e3 28.♖d7 b6 29.♖d6 with an easily won ending.
26.♖e5 ♖d8 27.♘f4 ♘d1 28.♖d5 ♘f2+ 29.♔g2 ♖c8 ...and black resigned without awaiting white's move. Powered by Aquarium
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